News (Page 6)

Anyone seeking good news about classical music should look to Iceland. The Nordic island nation’s commitment to music education continues to produce composers and performers with international reach and an enthusiastic audience for their work. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra is set to celebrate the artistry and creative enterprise of one of Iceland’s best-known musicians, Víkingur Ólafsson, at Harpa in their home city of Reykjavík. 

Iceland Symphony Youth Orchestra performs Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius next Sunday at 5 pm in Eldborg Hall in Harpa. Eva Ollikainen, Iceland Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor and Artistic Director conducts the  musicians of the future in their first semi-professional stage performance with an orchestra.

The first subscription concert of the season, taking place next Thursday, will be conducted by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's new Principal Guest Conductor, Bertrand de Billy.

De Billy performs regularly with the world's foremost orchestras, including the Salzburg Festival and New York's Metropolitan Opera. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie in Dresden. 

The Greek conductor Kornilios Michailidis has been appointed the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor-in-Residence for the 2021–2022 season. The appointment comes after Michailidis’s highly successful debut with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at Harpa Concert Hall in May 2021.

Positions of Principal Flute are open for applications until July 12th, 2021. Auditions will be at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik on September 8th 2021.

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra was selected as Performer of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards 2021. Lára Sóley Jóhannsdóttir, the Iceland Symphony's Managing Director, accepted the award on behalf of the orchestra at Harpa Concert Hall.

Occurrence is a new CD from Iceland Symphony published and recorded by Sono Luminus. The album contains five works by Icelandic composers Daníel Bjarnason, Veronique Vaka, Haukur Tómasson, Þuríður Jónsdóttir og Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson conducted by Daníel Bjarnason, the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. 

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daníel Bjarnason are nominated for a Grammy Award in the field of Best Orchestral Performance, for the CD Concurrence, released on the Sono Luminus label. 

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra delivers music to your doorstep with concert streaming from Harpa Concert Hall. The concerts will be streamed on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 17:00 GMT. Musicians from the orchestra take the stage and perform some wonderful chamber music for everyone to enjoy. 

We look forward to welcoming you back to Harpa Concert Hall. In compliance with the applicable distancing regulations an empty seat is between each purchased order, the concert hall is cleaned and disinfected regularly and the hall has been divided into separate areas. Concertgoers are asked to stay within their area, practice social distancing and stay at home if they feel ill.